Prison violence in Mexico leaves 20 injured

Cancun (Mexico), March 8 (IANS) More than 20 inmates were injured, one seriously, following a riot in a jail in southern Mexico Saturday, EFE news agency reported. The incident occurred in a municipal jail in southern coastal city of Cancun during an inspection by officials Saturday, Salvador Rocha, the public safety secretary of Quintana Roo province said.

“It was a routine operation looking for things that should not be inside the jail,” Rocha said, adding that though no firearms were found during the inspection, computers, cell phones, drugs and other items were confiscated.

“It’s an enormous hive of corruption,” the official said, referring to the activities linked to organised crime that were run from inside the prison.

The group that controlled the municipal jail, said Rocha, carried out activities of extortion and torture of inmates who were minors.

“We have reports of cases where they broke inmates’ bones and forced them to speak to family members to extort money from them,” he said.

The Cancun jail was originally designed to hold 400 inmates, but more than 1,200 inmates are being kept in the jail.

On Wednesday, 20 inmates were killed and six others injured in a fight between rival gangs at a prison in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, authorities said.